blefever

1999 Baja Outlaw with twins, 350 hours.

I get a fair amount water in the bilge when I first lanch the boat, so I know its not from wet swimmers. Most likely it's coming in through the drives, but wondering if anybody can tell me where to look first or where the most likely spot to leak is.

I have had the drives off for normal service but never gone any more then that. How much can I remove before taking the engines out?

apollard

With the drive off if you did not see any evidence of water in teh bellows, that one can be ruled out. Next possible culprit is the shift bellows, which can crack. You can replace everything rubber outside the boat with the engine in - except the transom seal.

After that, it gets harder to deal with - transon seal leaks, Y tube leaks , and raw water leaks get into removing the engine and transom assembly.

blefever

Thanks for the help.

firehawkcat

Trim her up should be able to see the bellows pretty good

firehawkcat

Oh yea turn it side to side will help also

blefever

So are you thnking the bellows is the most likley place to leak?

Griff

Most likely.
It will be obvious with rust on the U joints if its the main bellow. If there is no rust on the U joints, then it could be the shift cable bellow.

How much water are you getting in the bilge????

It could also be leaking from the engine or an exhaust or water hose. I had a hairline crack in a seaump housing and I would get 5-10 gallons of water in the bilge in 10 miles running hard.

TWIN-SPINS

swivel shaft seal,,,lift up and down on your outdrive,,if you have a lot of play from the top pin,,,,it needs to be repaired http://www.jrmarine.com/ watch the videos he shows the seal in it

Quinlan

My old Baja leaked forever. Not much but got worse over time.
My buddy that has it now finally found it leaking on back of main water pump. The one on motor not sea water pump.
Usually only while cruizing so could not see while just sitting.

blefever

Thank you all for the suggestions. This is the help I was hoping for.

Griff. Hard to say how much water, a few gallons for sure in less then an hour, but I would prefer none. I have no oil leaks and now working on no water leaks. I like to say "A Clean and Dry Bilge is a Happy Bilge"

I have checked the motors for leaks, and all the plumbing that I can see and it's all good. I do have closed cooling on the motors and no antifreez in the bilge so that helps to eliminate a lot of areas.

It seems to get more water coming in when just sitting pulled up on a beach then when running, so I'm pretty sure its coming from the drives.

A friend suggested I hit the drives with a pressure washer and look inside the boat to see if I can find where it is coming in. What do you guys think about that? I'm not a big fan of pressures washers on much less then a greasy old engine block.

Twin-Spins, I'll check the pins. Checked last year and they were fine but good idea to check now.

Great videos by the way, very informative.